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OK, It’s been a long time since we posted, and the post will probably remain inconsistent, but I have a short story I thought would be fun to share. I entered a tournament today, and one of the requirements was that the army have a story. This is what I entered, a short fluffy story about my Carcharodon/Sisters of Battle list.

Inquisitor Legate read the note again. Having no idea who left it, he did not know how reliable it was. But if it was true, he was greatly concerned. The fact that Inquisitor Aedile wanted to send the Minotaurs to investigate the Carcharodon Astartes based off of complaints from other chapters after the Badab war was a serious issue for Legate. He knew that the Carcharodons were loyal to the Imperium, and he knew that an investigation by the Minotaurs would only end in violence. Legate also had to admit that if the Minotaurs and the Carcharodons went to war with each other, the Minotaurs would probably wipe the Carcharodons from existence.

Inquisitor Legate got up from his chair and started pacing the office. His brow creased with concern. He knew the Carcharodons were loyal. OK, they were a little bit on the violent side, but they were loyal to the Emperor. He had the fact to back him up. Legate also knew that if he went up against Inquisitor Aedile, he would lose. He did not have enough support to go against Aedile’s wishes. But maybe he could pull just enough support to alter them.

Yes, alter them. Maybe if it looked like he was willing to have the Carcharodons investigated it would satisfy Aedile‘s allies in the Inquisition. He knew the Minotaurs would go in and attack. Even sending in the Grey Knights made him uncomfortable. Going in himself would be considered a conflict of interest, no other inquisitor would support him on that decision. Not even his allies…

Canoness Cirratu entered the room, leaving her guard outside the door with the two space marines that escorted them. She did not let her disdain at being ordered here show on her face. A few weeks ago she would not have recognized the icon adorning the shoulder pads of the Space Marines. Now she understood that these are Carcharodon Astartes. She walked up to the only marine in the darken room, stopping barley a foot away from him. Looking right into his black eyes, she handed over the documents she was carrying.

The pale marine didn’t say a word as he reached out to grab them. Cirratu felt the need to break the silence. Silence that has been eating at her since she and her squad landed on this ship. “I come with orders from Terra and documents from Lord Tyberos himself. My orders are to observe you and your men and report back with my findings.”

When she was done speaking, the pale space marine stood there in silence for what seems like an hour, but was probably only a few minutes. When he did finally speak, it was with a very quiet voice.

“What did you bring with you?”
“My personal command squad, a squad of my sisters, a Rhino, my personal command tank, and supplies for both you and me. These supplies include some new armour sent directly from Mars.”
“What do you need from us?”
“Billets, a place to train, and I need access to you and you men.”
“Done”

And with that, she knew this meeting was over. She spun on her heels and walked out of the office. As soon as she steeped through the marine on her left spoke.

“Canoness Cirratu, Captain Isurus told me to show you around the ship. We will pick up the rest of your troops and I will show you your billets, our training facilities, and where you can feast. Please follow me.”

While she walked next to these towering behemoths, she thought about how quickly Captain Isurus granted her access. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad assignment. She did begin to wonder why she was observing this chapter for the Inquisition. Such a small squad wouldn’t stop them if they fell to chaos, but even being sent showed that someone on Terra didn’t trust them. She would have her troops keep their eyes on these Space Marines…

After Canoness Cirratu left is office, he turned to the marine that was hiding in the shadows.

“She didn’t notice you.”
“Not that I can tell.”
“What is your opinion?”
“She comes with orders from Terra and from Lord Tyberos.”
“And?”
“And I still don’t trust her.”
“Have the men keep a watchful eye on her and her team. They may just be here to observe, but Lord Tyberos left a hidden message to keep our eyes out as well. We are not the only ones that are feeling uneasy with these Adepta Soroitas.”

Howdy everyone, Professor Severus here again. I picked up a copy of Angels of Death today, and I have to say, it has got the Iron Hands fires stoked again! I had always had trouble taking my 6th edition Clan Sorrgol force and making it work well in the 7th edition codex. Fortunately, the Fist of Medusa detachment from Angels of Death opens up a few build options.

The other addition from Angels of Death that really fired me was the new psychic disciplines. Technomancy. It is so perfect for Iron Hands. I never really had an urge to get a librarian until I read those rules. But an entire discipline about a librarian working with or against machines is to perfect to pass up.

So, I set out to right a goal list. The list needed to meet the following requirements. It needs to be built within the new Fist of Medusa detachment. It needs to incorporate a librarain. It needs to use the bulk of models I already have, as the rest of my hobby budget is focused towards 30k for the year. Lastly, I wanted to up the competitiveness of the list. I want this list to be able to hold it’s own in a tournament. It doesn’t have to win, just not loose the majority of the games.

So, here is what I came with:

Battle Demi-Company

Chapter Master

Bike, Thunder Hammer, Gorgon’s Chains, Artificer Armor

Bike Squad

5 man, 2 grav guns

Tactical Squad

10 man, plasma gun, heavy bolter, veteran sgt, melta bomb, rhino

Tactical Squad

10 man, plasma gun, heavy bolter, veteran sgt, melta bomb, rhino

Tactical Squad

10 man, plasma gun, heavy bolter, veteran sgt, melta bomb, rhino

Devestator

5 man, 4 lascannons

Contemptor Dread

Multimelta

Librarius Conclave

Librarian

lvl2, Divination

Librarian

lvl2, Terminator Armor, Divination

Librarian

lvl2, Bike, Mindforge Stave, Technomancy

Honoured Ancients

Ironclad Dreadnough

Drop Pod

The list totals 1850 on the nose. It meets the requirements I set out. The only models I need to add are the foot librarian, the bike librarian, one ironcald dread, and 2 lascannon marines. It has more competitive edge with the chapter master on bike and the librarius. It presents some conversion opportunities through the bike librarian.

Rules wise, this thing gets tons of buffs. All Iron Hands get +1 feel no pain when within 12 of an independent character and all vehicles gain power of the machine spirit when within 12 of an independent character. The biker chapter master and librarian should give me some mobility to take advantage of those rules. I can call a single tactical doctrine thanks to the demi-company. The troops all get objective secured. The librarius conclave will hopefully be able to give some nice buffs to the devestators (casting on a 3+), while the biker tried to give +1 toughness to the bikers or mess with near by vehicles.

So, what do you think? Sound like a decent list to aim for? I am excited to try it out, but it will probably take a few months to build up to. In the mean time, I may experiment with a few other lists options that I can build. They will probably be built using a combined arms detachment. Until next time, this is Professor Severus saying have a good one and take it easy.

Shorereaper here, and I am in a state of shock. Today while waiting for my work computer to reboot for the third time, I decided to see how many points of fully painted Tyranids I could field if I chose too. Now, this is presuming unbound, and was more of a moment to see what I have done. Six thousand points. Let me say that again. I have six thousand points fully painted. And that’s not even including upgrades (except for some wings on Tyrants). Here is the list:

As many of you know, I have been putting a lot of time into my Alpha Legion as of late. However, with my mild ADHD, I haven’t even been able to concentrate on one list to build towards. I am a big fan of play testing which is why I bought outriders and a javelin without ever using them. So, after some thought, I decided to build one 2500-point list, using the “Coils of the Hydra” Rites of War, and work on completing that list specifically.

Now, in this list there is no Primarch, since Forgeworld has not produced a model yet. And don’t get me started that we have seen a model of Russ, and not even a hint of Alpharius. Also, what I like about this list, is that it is easy for me to switch out other units. For now (which will probably change before I actually post this), this is what I have:

I plan to have Dynat, the Apothecary, and the support squad ride in the Land Raider. I could also place a Tac Squad, the Headhunters, or nothing in the Darkwing, depending on my mood or needs for the day. I have never used Exodus, so I am interested in how he will work, and putting him with the Headhunters seems to be the most logical place (rather than have him run around on his own).

I also like this list because I could easily swap units out. I could easily drop Exodus and the Javelin freeing up a lot of points. Also, if I drop the rites of war, I could reduce my army by dropping the Darkwing and a unit of Tactical Marines.

Finally, what do I have to get and build to run this list? Well, I need an Exodus model, which I may use a Recon Squad model until an actual character model is released, and I need one more Rhino. I have to build the Fire Raptor and the Storm Eagle, since I now have both of those.

This list brings some fluff, some punching power, a little too much air power (one flyer is usually enough), and the ability to hold some objectives. The Javelin (with outflank, deepstrike, and it’s speed) can be used to support troops in need.

This past Friday I got my first game in of Kings of War. I player the Dark Elves… I mean the Twilight Kin against the owner of Critical Hit Games and his army (which I have since forgotten what they were). The game would have gone a lot faster if I had any idea of what I was doing (and yes, I glanced at the rule book) but this was meant to be a teaching game. I can’t say that I played with any strategy, or any thought at all other than learning the game. It was relatively quick, fairly easy, and a decent substitute for Warhammer Fantasy. It’s a closer substitute than Age of Sigmar is in my opinion.

I enjoyed the game, so much so that I have already started gluing models to their movement trays for ease of transport and fielding.

I also got to use the Kharibdyss for the first time, although in this game it was just a Hydra that didn’t last all that long. And since I used the Kharibdyss, I decided that maybe I should think about painting him.

I would recommend people looking for a Fantasy alternative to give KoW a try. It’s not a perfect replacement, but if you are not a fan of AoS, KoW isn’t bad at all. Sorry for the short post for today.

Howdy everyone, Professor Severus here. Yes, I changed the title after seeing Shorereapers last article. It fits my current job, so why not? Anyway, I know I have been slacking about working on the blog lately. I actually have been slacking with the whole hobby, but such is life.

Proof that I actually do some cool stuff at the new job

So, to motivate myself, I have decided to set some hobby goals. I actually made these like a week ago, and decided to turn it into an article at Shorereaper’s prompting. Basically, I have two main focuses this coming year. 30k Iron Hands and a bad Tau list.

First up, the bad Tau. There is a tournament at the store that I play at, Moxie Games. One of the members of the community has organized a bad list tournament. Essential, you write the worst list you can (with some restrictions). Then when you are paired with an opponent, you trade lists and play. Shorereaper and I have done this once and it was a blast. So when I saw that tournament format, I jumped at the opportunity.

I settled on the following Tau list. It is about as bad as I can make Tau, and it should be fun to play against. Lots of tools for a crafty opponent to use to good effect, but some epic points wasting in the list. It is a 1500 point list using the farsight enclave rules.

All and all, a great bad list in my opinion. I am working on fully painting it. I just need to finish the crisis suits (5 left), the drones, and darkstrider. I actually picked up some of the new crisis suits. They are awesome, so I am excited to paint them up. When I have this group painted up in a few weeks it will be time to look onto the next project.

I don’t think I have ever seen this many painted vespid…

Speaking of, the next project is going to be completing the two base lists I have for my 30k Iron Hands. I have a decent start on these lists, but have a lot of units left to buy and paint. I settled on two lists. One featuring Ferrus Manus and one without him. I wanted to be able to represent the legion pre and post Istvaan V. I also didn’t want the lists to be to different from each other (to minimize purchasing, forgeworld can get expensive).

Pre-Istavaan V

Damocles Command Rhino

Legion Tactical Squad – 10 man in a rhino

Legion Tactical Squad – 10 man in a rhino

Legion Tactical Squad – 10 man in a rhino

Contemptor Mortis Dreadnought – Two Twin-linked Autocannons

Gorgon Terminators – 8 man total with Hammerbearer

Legion Weapon Battery – Quad Mortar

Medusan Immortals – 10 man, all with Volkite Chargers in a Land Raider Phobos

When you boil this list down, I basically have the three tac squads with rhinos, the contemptor, and ferrus manus already bought and painted. I have 5 gorgon terminators, but they need to be painted. The rest are things I need to pick up, assemble, and paint. It should be a fun project. Not a lot of 30k players around here, so I plan to play against some 40k opponents.

Now, compared to Shorereaper, this is a pretty short list of things to work on over the next 10 months. I don’t have much of a hobby budget anymore, so I wanted to keep the list limited purchase wise. Outside of these commitments, I have plenty to work on. I have probably over 7000 points of orks that I need to paint yet and at least another 2000 points of tau. I figure I can use those to help keep the hobby varied. Plus there are some new ork rules coming…we all know who shows up whenever the Orks come around.

So until next time everyone, this is Professor Severus saying have a good one and take it easy.

Howdy everyone, Severus here. You probably have not heard much from me over the last few months for a good reason. I moved to Alabama and started a new job. This job is VERY demanding of my time. To make matters worse I went from having a good gaming store 5 minutes away to one almost an hour away. In short, my gaming has come to a halt.

Yet despite the fact that I have been out to game twice since June, I still am interested in the hobby. I have slowly started work on some Iron Hand Bikers and a Bike Chapter Master. I know, it’s a douche squad. But the gaming group I ran into at the new store is a much more competitive group than I am used to. Not a bad thing by any means, I just need to adjust my lists.

Over this past weekend, I had the urge to pick up a Storm Eagle. Forgeworld is having a free shipping on 100 pound orders until the end of the month. I have NO use for a storm eagle other than horus heresy. I know no heresy gamers here in Alabama. Yet I still want that lovely flyer.

Then today it came to me. I am entering into a new life stage of being a gamer. Work is much more important in my life now, and family and friends are taking up much of my spare time. My gaming time is no longer focused on building lists and playing games. It is focused on reading books and painting. I am becoming the Adult Hobby Gamer (AHG).

I had seen AHG’s before. They came out once every few months when they could get away. Their lists were never updated to reflect the current meta. They played when they could to have fun. They hobbyied when they could to make cool looking models. Their models live on shelves in cool dioramas, not in travel cases. The best part is they still seemed to be enjoying themselves.

So I embraced my new life stage. I started unpacking a few models and laying them out on the shelves today. Only painted models that look good together. I am making some slow progress as a biker holding a grav gun. And I am really really close to ordering that storm eagle.

It feels good. I am not fighting to be something that I am not. I will build stuff I like, and paint stuff I like. I will hobby when I have the time and the mood strikes me. Games will be few and far between, but when they happen they are epic.

So there you have it. How many of you have been through the transition to Adult Hobby Gamer? What did you change with your hobby? Until next time, this is Severus saying have a good one and take it easy.

That’s right, I caved. This past weekend I bought A devastator squad so that I can build some new marines with Grav-Cannons. But that is not what I really mean when I say I caved. I also bought a Command Squad and a box of bikers. I was doing so well on not spending money, but no, I had to cave. Why do I think I caved when I mention these?

Well, for the past couple of weeks I wanted to play test a command squad for Isurus and the second Company of Carcharodons. However, I was never actually able to get that game in. Every time I would come close, something would come up. Either I would play the Tyranids, or need to play a more competitive game, or just not even get a game in. So I caved, bought the two boxes, and began my conversions. Am I 100% happy with the conversions? No. But I am happy over all.

First, we have the Chapter Champion. I like his pose and that I was able to add the shield. The final goal, after some sanding, is to add the Carcharodon emblem to the shield.

Second we have an Apothecary on a bike. Thanks to someone pointing it out to be, this unit will be 3+ Armour save, 4+ cover save, and now have a 5+ Feel No Pain, all with a toughness 5. I don’t like where the left arm ended up, but it could have been worse.

Speaking of worse, now we come to the banner bearer. I really wanted my command squad to have one. But none of the banners looked correct. They all looked static. So I just tried to make it look like this one guy was carrying it off to the side. The final goal may be to get a banner from a Raven Wing bike squad and convert that into a Carcharodon Banner. But for now, this banner will have to do.

All that is left is for me to build a few more bikers, armed with power swords. Then, I will be happy with my command squad… well, maybe after they are painted.

Coming up next weekend there is a 1500-point tournament at the local store. It is supposed to be a “fun” tournament, and I have decided to fully embrace this. I decided to write a list that I felt I would have fun with. Is this my final list? Honestly, probably not. I may end up changing my mind and go into it more competitively. All it takes is one person to bring a competitive list, and that person will dominate the tournament. And once people realize that, you run into an arms race. But for now, I believe that this will be what I run.

There are a couple of reasons why I am taking this list. One, I have every single one of these units fully painted, and that is going to look awesome on the table. In fact, if I get more gargoyles painted, I am going to add them to the formation, and take out some genestealers. Two, most of these units can be taking down by bolters, even the Skytyrant Swarm. I have seen those 30 wounds just disappear during a game. Plus, with how the rule reads, I now have a flying Hive Tyrant that cannot fly (and if I am misreading the rule, please tell me). Three, while I will have a psychic phase, it isn’t going to be all that powerful. And finally, excluding the fact that I do not expect to win, I think this list we be fun for my opponents and me.

In the last two weeks I have gotten four games in, and all four have ended in losses. This wouldn’t normally be that bad, I am used to losing, but it’s the way that I have lost. Either I was tabled (games 2, 3, and 4) or so close to being tabled that it didn’t matter. But the really odd thing is how I felt about them. For example, games 1 and 4 were actually a lot of fun. Game 2 was ok, not as much fun as I normally have, but it wasn’t all that bad. But game 3, that wasn’t fun at all. Not even close.

Game 1 – Tau vs. Tyranids. This was actually my second game ever against the Tau player, and I wanted to take a toned down Tyranid list, even though I knew I would be facing a fairly competitive Tau list. He had a couple of Riptides, some Broadsides, tetras, and a few other things. I was taking a Pyrovore and 2 Biovores, so obviously my list was fairly soft.

The game was the Relic, and I controlled the relic through most of the game. At least, till the last turn when I was finally shot off of it. But at least it was a close game, and I had a lot of fun trying to pull out the win with an army that had very little chance of doing it.

Game 2 – Minotaurs vs Tyranids – Now this I though would be a close game. Again, my list wasn’t amazing, but I thought it was ok. Boy was I going to be taught a lesson. I couldn’t stand up to the firepower. Grav-gun Centurians took out the Exocrine in turn one. Raveners took a beating from bolters. Gaunts and the Tervigon basically just collapsed. It wasn’t pretty. But it wasn’t a painful game like game three turned out to be. All of the doctrines allowing for rerolling was just painful.

Game 3 – Ultramarines vs Dark Eldar – Ok, I asked for this, but it just wasn’t all that much fun. I told my opponent to take whatever he wanted, and he wanted to get a second test game in of his Skyhammer Annihilation Force. My Dark Eldar Army is not competitive. They are meant for me to have fun, that’s it. But frankly, the skyhammer force, coming in on turn one, made me play defensive right away. Actually, it wasn’t even defensive. It was “Run away! Run away!” By the end of turn 2 I knew it was game over.

Game 4 – Skitarii and Mechanicus and Imperial Knight vs Tyranids – Now this game, which has the same result as game 3, was a lot more fun. I got my first game in against the Skitarii/Mechanicus pair. It was ugly, and while my list wasn’t strong, it did allow me to get a feel for my opponent’s army. It wasn’t pretty, not even close. In turn one (he went first mind you), I lost an Exocrine, Flying HT (my warlord), a Carnifex, 2 Raveners, and 4 warriors. I lost almost half my army in points, and two of my best units, and I didn’t even go yet. To make it even worse, he didn’t even roll that well (neither did I). But, at least it was a fun loss even if I was tabled that fast.

So, the question becomes why did I have fun in games 1 and 4, but not so much fun in games 2 and 3? I think that in game 1, I knew it was going to be a struggle, and that became fun. Trying to pull out a win from a game that I should not have. Game 4 was fun because it was against a new army. Yes, I got my ass handed to me in a neat little package, but it was fun to play against something new. Game 2, I think it was just disheartening how badly I lost with a list that I thought would do better. And game 3, that skyhammer force just was an unstoppable force when going against my non-competitive list. Yes, I told him to take anything, so it is my fault. I must own that. But from now on, when someone takes a competitive list, and I am taking my Dark Eldar, I have to go in asking that they take a soft list.